Assam remembers Dr Maheswar Neog; Sarbananda Sonowal pays tribute

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal paid rich tributes to Dr Maheswar Neog, litterateur, academician, scholar and one of Assam's cultural doyens on his 25th death anniversary today.

Assam CM Sonowal wrote in a Twitter message, "An epitome of knowledge, Maheswar Neog's cultural and intellectual legacy are treasures for the Assamese society. Remembering the great scholar and multi-faceted genius on his death anniversary".

Professor Maheswar Neog was an outstanding Indian scholar, writer and poet, he specialised in the cultural history of North East India especially Assam. He was a Professor at Gauhati University.

He wrote and edited several classics in Assamese and Sanskrit, including 'Sankardeva and His Times', considered to be the most comprehensive and up-to-date account of the modern Vaishnava movement in Assam which was initially started by Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardev, the Vaishnava Saint of Assam.

A recipient of Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour in 1974, he was the President of Asom Sahitya Sabha (Assam Literary Society) in the same year.

His areas of studies covered all disciplines of Indian studies, language and literary history, lexicography and orthography, epigraphy and ethnography, historiography and hagiography, fine arts and paintings, music, dance, drama, religion and folklore apart from critical editions of a number of important ancient and medieval texts in Sanskrit and Assamese.

Dr Neog's biggest contribution to Assam and Assamese culture has been the work that he did to give Satriya dance the place it deserves. It is because of him that India and the world knows about this classical dance form of Assam which originated from the Vaishnava preaching of Srimanta Sarkardeva. It is due to his untiring efforts that Satriya dance got recognised as a classical dance form of India.

"When you are a daughter or a child of an eminent person then you miss out on many things that a normal child would have. But no regrets. I feel lucky and blessed to be the daughter of such a legend," Dr Neog's daughter, Navamalati Neog Chakravarty told Sentinel Assam from Kolkata over the phone.

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